Packer outsources Northwest pickles, buys out Woodburn farmers

SEATTLE -- A Nalley pickle jar says "great taste of the Northwest" on the front label and "product of India" on the back.

Nalley is owned by Bay Valley Foods of Green Bay, Wis., which is closing a processing plant in Portland. The plant, which has 88 employees will close in June, company officials previously told The Oregonian.

Without the plant, the company says it no longer needs cucumbers from the Skagit Valley and Oregon. Bay Valley, which also produces Farman's and Steinfeld's pickles, is a division of TreeHouse Foods.

Cucumber growers were notified in February they were no longer needed and the company negotiated a settlement with ProFac, a cooperative that represents 14 Skagit Valley farmers and four from Woodburn.

The grower who negotiated the deal, Ken Dahlstedt, who also is a Skagit County commissioner, says farmers could receive more than $1 million from the deal but they'd rather raise a crop.